A district court on Thursday sentenced a former professional basketball coach to 10 months behind bars for fixing games.

Kang Dong-hee, 47, was found guilty of taking cash worth 47 million won ($42,000) from gambling brokers to fix four games during the 2010-2011 season of the Korean Basketball League (KBL) while heading the Dongbu Promy.

It marks the first time that a coach from one of four profession sports in South Korea has received a prison term for fixing games, dealing another blow to the country's sporting world which has been tainted by a series of similar rigging scandals.

"The nature and method of Kang's crime are poor and it is difficult to judge that he has self-reflected (on his wrongdoing)," Na Cheong, a judge of the Uijeongbu District Court, said in his ruling.

The court also ordered the former coach to forfeit the 47 million won.

In the same ruling, the man who paid Kang through brokers to fix the games was sentenced to one year and four months in prison.

Kang served as Dongbu's assistant coach from 2005 to 2009, and became the team's head coach before the 2009-2010 season.

Dubbed "Wizard on the Court," Kang is also regarded as one of South Korea's greatest point guards, dating back to the late 1980s and the early 1990s, before the launch of the professional league.

He was the MVP in the inaugural KBL season in 1997 and led the league in assists four times. (Yonhap News)